



\^\ 




LIBERTUS VAN HOKKI'LHN, D. U., LL. D. 



THE 
ARGUS 



CATONSVILLE, MD., 



CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 

A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 

BY 

QEORQE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 



Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 



From a small beginning more than 
two centuries ago as a primitive settle- 
ment of backwoods planters, Catons- 
ville has kept on growing as the years 
have passed in long array until it has 
become a populous suburb of one of the 
large cities of America. 

The proximity of so important a busi- 
ness centre as the city of Baltimore 
has had the effect of giving to Catons- 
ville a relatively large number of promi- 
nent men in all the walks of life, who 
have found its beautiful and healthful 
location on a great ridge of land over- 
looking the Patapsco River and Chesa- 
peake Bay conducive to both peace of 
mind and body. 

Some of its citizens reside permanent- 
ly within its bounds and have their 
whole being in its village activities, 
while others find it a convenient abode 
whence they may daily issue forth to 
their bread-winning in the neighboring 
metropolis of Maryland. A third class 
of suburban dwellers come only during 
the warmer months of the year in order 
to escape from the weariness occasioned 
by scorching brick walls and sweltering 
humanity in the confines of a great 
city. 

Each of these classes has contributed 
its quota of prominent personalities 
that have at one time or another graced 
Catonsville with their presence, but it 
is undoubtedly among the circle of per- 
manent residents that we may most 
fittingly seek for those whose lives and 
interests have been most closely identi- 
fied with the history of Catonsville in 
times past. 



I. INTRODUCTION. 

By way of illustration there may be 
mentioned the group of educators who 
have given to the village institutions of 
learning in which have been trained 
many of the men and women who later 
became beacon lights in the State and 
nation. St. Timothy's Hall and Over- 
lea College both had their day of glory 
in the years gone by while Mount de 
Sales Academy still survives after more 
than half a century of usefulness. 

The churches of the various denomi- 
nations have in the main also had along 
career in their mission of spiritual up- 
lift, and many have been the ministers 
of the gospel who have won a firm place 
in the affections of their parishonersby 
their lovable and sterling qualities. A 
relatively large number of religious in- 
stitutions form a species of holy circle 
about the village, and these are mostly 
near enough to the centre of population 
to ward off as it were evil influences of 
direful power without causing the 
worldlings to feel all too ill at ease in a 
saintly atmosphere. 

The more material welfare of the in- 
habitants has been the concern of an- 
other group of men who have done much 
for the advancement of the community 
by their business enterprise in develop- 
ing the natural advantages of the 
region. Roads have been opened in 
many directions, while horse-car lines, 
steam railroads and electric tramways 
have made communication easy with the 
neighboring city and the surrounding 
villages. 



Edifices both public and private of 
many kinds have added their note of 
comfort and utility to the neighborhood, 
and especially note-worthy are the 
many elegant residences dotted over 
the country for miles around in all di- 
rections. The men who have builded 
these things of beauty deserve honor- 
able consideration at the hands of their 
fellow-citizens, and their handiwork is 
much in evidence to whomsoe" .-r it may 
be that tarries in Catonsville be it for 
a longer or shorter period of time. 

It would evidently be futile to hope 
for any complete treatment in a bio- 
graphical way of so large a group of men 
worthy of notice, and indeed so many 
of them are still living that personal 
notices would hardly be in good taste in 
a series such as the one here projected. 
Suffice it, therefore, to include only a 
few of those who have long since gone 
to their reward above and whose bene- 
ficent activities are likely to be for- 
gotten by the community in which they 
lived as the personal recollections of 
their contemporaries gradually become 
dimmed by the passing years. 



•{735/fl 



CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 

A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 

BY 

GEORGE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 



Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 



II. REV. L. VAN BOKKELEN, D. D 

Most prominent among the educators 
of Catonsville in times past was un- 
doubtedly the subject of the present 
sketch.whose life work has been thought 
worthy of an independent notice in the 
recently published Cyclopedia of Educa- 
tion (Vol. V, p. 705.) 

By descent Libertus Van Bokkelen 
was both Dutch and Welsh, and he 
united in his person many of the sterl- 
ing qualities of both races. A born 
orator of the mobile lip type, he was 
essentially a man of affairs of the 
religious and educational sort as is 
abundantly shown by his long career of 
ceaseless activity in many lines of en- 
deavor. 

He was born in New York City on 
July 22, 1815, the son of a merchant 
who dealt largely in Southern products, 
and one of a large family of children. 
While still quite young he removed with 
the family to Brooklyn, but when he 
had reacded the age of nine he was 
sent to a boarding-school on Long 
Island and thus grew up in a school at- 
mosphere. (See The Biographical Cy- 
clopedia of Maryland and the District 
of Columbia, 1879, pp. 408-409.) 



LL. D. 

■In 1845 at the suggestion of Bishop 
Whittingham of Maryland he came to 
Catonsville and established a church 
military school known as St. Timothy's 
Hall. This was the first school of its 
kind in the United States, and it soon 
became widely known throughout the 
South. (See The National Cyclopedia 
of American Biography, Vol. Ill (1893) 
p. 213, cols. 1-2.) 

Though beginning with nothing, this 
school in a few years achieved great 
success. Extensive buildings were 
erected accommodating no less than one 
hundred and fifty students, and the cur- 
riculum included physical culture in a 
■!- gymnasium under skilled teachers. The 
pupils were organized as an infantry 
battalion and an artillery corps for 
which the State provided muskets, 
cannon and other equipments. 

When the Civil War broke out in 1861 
the institution was at the height of its 
prosperity, and plans had been made 
for e.xtending the buildings. When the 
call to arms came most of the students 
left, taking with them the muskets and 
cannon which were soon put to the 
stern uses of real war. 



The assassination of President Lin- 
coln by John Wilkes Booth, a former 
pupil at the school, turned the United 
States military authorities' attention to 
it, and General Lew Wallace upon as- 
suming command of the department on 
April 19 immediately issued the follow- 
ing order respecting the uniform worn 
by the pupils of St. Timothy's Hall, 
(then known as theCatonsville Military 
Institute) : 

Headquarters Middle Division, 
Eighth Army Corps, 
Baltimore, April 19, 1865. 
General Orders No. 86. 

The gray uniform worn by certain 
young men, said to be students, has be- 
come so offensive to loyal soldiers and 
citizens that it is prohibited in this de- 
partment. 

This order will take effect from and 
after the 25th of the present month. 
By command of 

Maj.-Gen. Wallace. 
George H. Hooker, 

Asst.-Adjt. General. 



... , ^. , ^ J • The mam buildmgs of St. Timothy s 

His education was completed in van- ,, ,, . ^ j u ^ • ,or,r. ,: .. 

, , ^T T 1 , Hall were destroyed by fire in 1872, but 

the old armory is still standing as a 
memorial of the past 



ous other schools near New York, and 
he early became interested in a second- 
ary school on Long Island in which he 
rose rapidly to a position of consider- 
able influence. 

In the years 1839, 1840 and 1841 he 
traveled extensively in Europe study- 
ing the various systems of instruction 
in use in France, Italy, Austria, Hun- 
gary, Bavaria, Switzerland, the Ger- 
man States, Holland, Belgium, England, 
Ireland, Scotland and Wales. (See The 
Maryland Educational Journal, Vol. I 
(1867), pp. 230-231.) 

After his return to America he com- 
pleted his theological studies and took 
holy orders in the Protestant Episcopal 
Church in 1842. 



In the report of the State Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction to the 
General Assembly of Maryland in 1865 
the school is put down as having eight 
professors, one hundred and eighty 
students and property worth forty thou- 
sand dollars. (See p. 127.) 

In 1850 Dr. Van Bokkelen was married 
to Miss Amelia D'Arcy, the youngest 
daughter of John N. D'Arcy, a mer- 
chant of Baltimore. Their early wedded 
While residing 'in Catonsville Dr. Van ' ''^'^ ''"^ ^P^"* ^''''^'" ^^ ^'^ Timothy's 
Bokkelen also filled the position of : H^" °'' '" ^^^ "^^''^^ '■e<='^o'"y °^ St. 
rector of St. Timothy's Church and had Timothy's Church, and it was here that 
charge of Grace Church at Elk Ridge I '''®"" ^"^ children were born: Amelia, 
Landing and St. Peter's Church in Elli- •■ ^^° married William Thode; Benjamin 
cott City. In the discharge of his varied ; O^den, who married Miss Clara Conkey; 
ministerial duties he was assisted by the Libertus Morris, who married Miss 
teachers in his school who had pursued "^''^" '^^ Cushman; Bertha, who 
clerical studies. His younger brother '^'^'' ^^ ^ '=^''''= E"^- '"^° '^'^'^ """ 
Rev. James Ellisden Van Bokkelen was '"^""^'^ ^* the age of twenty-seven, 
his assistant at St. Timothy's Church ^'"•^ ^°^^ Campbell, who married a 
at the time of his death on Nov. 17, y°""g ^^^^ ^''o™ ^ew York. (From a 
1850, at the age of twenty-five. He had granddaughter, Mrs. Richard Johnston, 



previously had charge of the church at 
Elk Ridge Landing. (See American 
Quarterly Church Review, 1851, p. 639.) 
In 1864 the number of pupils at St. 
Timothy's Hall had fallen off so con- 
siderably owing to the Southern patron- 
age having been cut off by the war that 
Dr. Van Bokkelen decided, after hav- 
ing suffered great pecuniary loss, to 
give up the school and turn to other 
means of earning a livelihood. With 
this object in view he rented St. Timo- 
thy's Hall to Professor E. Parsons, who 
continued it under the old name with 
I great success. 



Apr. 5, 1915.) 

[TO BE CONTINTIED.: 



CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 

A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 

BY 

QEORQE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 



Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 



II. REV. L. VAN BOKKELEN, D. D., LL. D. (Con.) 



Dr. LibertU3 Van Bokkelen occupies 
likewise a prominent place in the his- 
tory of the public schools of Maryland, 
having been largely instrumental in 
establishing the whole educational sys- 
tem of the state. 

As early as 1S59 he was appointed a 
School Commissioner for the First Dis- 
trict of Baltimore County and served in 
this capacity until 1865. 

On Nov. 15, 1864, there appeared in a 
local paper the following paragraph: 

"Superintendent of Public Education. 
— Gov. Bradford has commissioned Rev. 
L. Van Bokkelen, of Catonsville, Balti- 
more county, as Superintendent of Pub- 
lic Education for the State of Mary- 
land. It would have been scarcely 
possible for the Governor to have se- 
lected within the limits of the State a 
gentleman better fitted for this im- 
portant position, or one whose qualifica- 
tions are more widely known and appre- 
ciated. With great experience in the 
education of youth, he combines all the 
practical business qualifications re- 
quired for the successful establishment 
of the new system of public schools to 
be established under the new Constitu- 
tion." 

This official appointment, to which a 
salary of twanty-five hundred dollars 
per annum was attached, was the be- 
ginning of a period of intense activity 
which may well be considered the high- 
water mark in Dr. Van Bokkelen's 
career. 

After visiting schools in the North to 
observe their educational methods, he 
elaborated a system of public instruc- 
tion which was incorporated in a bill 
entitled "A Uniform System of Public I 
Instruction for the State of Maryland.' 



1867. As the easiest way of ridding 
themselves of an obnoxious official the 
convention simply abolished the office 
which he held in spite of an eloquent 
protest on his part. 

When it became evident that Dr. Van 
Bokkelen would be obliged to give up 
his position, Mr. William Henry Far- 
quhar of Montgomery county offered 
the following resolution at ameetingon 
Dec. 5, 1867, of the Association of 
Public School Commissioners and it was 
unanimously adopted by a rising vote: 

On Dec. 30, 1865, he made his first 
official report to Governor Bradford, in 
which he thus described some of his 
own activities: 

"In accordance with the requirements 
of the law, I have, since April 1st, 
visited and delivered addresses in each 
county, except Calvert. I attended the 
State Convention of Teachers at El- 
mira. New York; and the National Con- 
vention of Teachers at Harrisburg, Pa. 
I have twice visited Philadelphia and 
New York on official business, have 
traveled in the discharge of these duties 
4,275 miles, and delivered 75 addresses, 
chiefly explanatory of the School Sys- 
tem." (See p. 3.) 

On Jan. 24, 1866, the State Senate 
ordered two thousand copies to be 
printed, two hundred of which were to 
he in the German language. 

Dr. Van Bokkelen's administration of 
his high ofiioe was so successful that 
Franklin and Marshall College, Lan- 
caster, Pa., in 1865 conferred on him 
the degree of LL. D., and during the 
four years of his incumbency very note- 
worthy progress was made in the public 
schools throughout the State. 

But when the Civil War had come to 
a close and with it the military dicta- 
torship in Maryland, the popular will 
once more asserted itself and a re- 
actionary constitution was adopted in 



"Resolved, That in closing the pres- 
ent and perhaps the final session of the 
Association of School Commissioners of 
the State of Maryland we feel it our 
duty to express in the most unqualified 
terms our high estimate of the services 
of the State Superintendentin the great 
work committed to our charge. We re- 
gard the successful operation and the 
beneficial results of the present admir- 
able School System as owing in a great 
measure to his genius in organizing it,, 
and to his zeal and devotion in carrying 
it on at great personal sacrifices, known 
to the members of this Association. Al- 
though in consequence of the inherent 
difficulties that beset the inception of 
every great enterprise, heightened by 
the peculiar political excitement of the 
times, the true character and value of 
his services may not yet be duly appre- 
ciated, it is our firm belief when these 
sources of misunderstanding shall have 
passed away, the name of the Rev. L. 
Van Bokkelen will be placed high as the 
highest on the list of the men identi- 
fied in America with its graatest glory, 
— free popular education." 

Dr. Van Bokkelen had likewise a 
career in the National Teachers' Asso- 
ciation; in 1866 he became a Director, 
in 1868 the Secretary, and in 1869 the 
President of the Association. In 1868 
he took part in discussions on school 
funds, state normal schools, and text- 
books; and in 1869 responded to the ad- 
dress of welcome at Trenton, N. J. 
This latter meeting took place on Aug. 
18, 19 and 20, and was the largest con- 
vention of teachers ever held in the 
United States up to that time, as more 
than two thousand were in attendance. 
(See Proceedings of the National 
Teachers' Association, 1869, pp. 2-4, 
etc.) 

During this period also he was an 
ardent supporter of the Maryland School 
Journal published at first in Hagers- 
town, 1864-1865; and revived later at 
Baltimore under the title Maryland 
Educational Journal, 1867-1868. These 
journals were the oflScial organ of the 
Department of Public Instruction of the 
State of Maryland, but they led a pre- 
carious existence owing to the lack of 
adequate financial support and soon 
ceased publication. 

Dr. Van Bokkelen's educational 
scheme was greatly altered from time 
to time in after years, but it is essen- 
tially still the basis of the public school 
system of Maryland. (See State of 
Maryland, Teachers' Year Book, 
Scholastic Year 1914-1915, p. 112.) 

[TO BE CONTINUED.] 



II. REV. L. VAN BOKKELEN, D. D., LL. D. (Con.) 



In the year 1871 Dr. Van Bokkelen 
left the state definitely, and accepted a 
pastoral charge at Mount Morris in 
Western New York becoming rector of 
St. John's Church, while at the same 
time he assumed the management of 
the Jane Grey Seminary for young 
ladies. (See Buffalo Express, Nov. 2, 
1899, p. 6.) 

Trinity Church in Buffalo called him 
to its rectorship in 1874, and by so do- 
ing inaugurated the final period of pros- 
perity in the long and useful life of the 
subject of this sketch. In a history of 
this parish published in 1897 an extend- 
ed account of his work here is given. 

"He brought to his new work a 
shrewd business capacity, a fund of en- 
thusiasm and energy, great tact in 
dealing with men, and an unusual abil- 
ity in the pulpit. Add to this a sincere 
and heartfelt desire to promote the in- 
terests of the church and the great 
truths of the Christian religion, and we 
can see he was well fitted for the crisis 
in which he found himself placed." 
\ The situation which he found in his 
'new charge was one that called for a 
decided change, and he was the very 
man to bring it about. There were two 
sister congregations located in unde- 
sirable downtown districts, and he made 
it his especial business from the very 
start to bring about a consolidation of 
interests and to build a new and hand 
some church in the residential section 
of the rapidly growing city. 

After ten years of ceaseless effort he 
was able to bring about a union of the 
two parishes, and after two more years 
of planning to complete a worthy house 
of worship in a fine new location. 

When the new plan was first sub- 
mitted by the respective rectors "a 
long and somewhat animated discussion 
ensued, in which the various news- 
papers of the city took such an active 
part that what at first was a matter of 
parish concern rapidly enlarged into 
what seemed to be of vital interest to 
the municipality." 

The smaller sister church was natu- 
rally opposed to the consolidation, but 
when finally the influence of the Bishop 
was thrown into the scale the opposi- 
tion melted away, and on June 14, 1884, 
Judge Lewis granted a decree of con- 
solidation between the two parishes, 
and the smaller of the original edifices 
was thenceforth known as Christ 
Chapel. The other building was sold 
and the new edifice was occupied for 
the first time on Easter Sunday, 1886. 
Dr. Van Bokkelen at this time re- 
signed his rectorship because of the in- 
creasing weight of years, and bade his 
congregation an affectionate farewell. 
Being now once more free to go 
whithersoever he might desire he made 
a tour of Europe, and later on another of 
the West and of Alaska. But the angel 
of death was at hand! 



On Oct. 31, 1889, he consulted his 
physician in regard to an attack of 
dyspepsia, but he was not thought then 
to be in a serious condition. The next 
morning, Nov. 1, he was found to have 
passed away silently during the late 
hours of the night from heart failure. 
His funeral was held on Nov. 4, 1889, 
in the Church of the Ascension in Buff- 
alo, with Bishop Coxe officiating. Twen- 
ty surpliced clergy took part in the pro- 
cession that entered the church, which 
was filled with an audience among 
whom were many of the leading men 
of Buffalo. A large number of rela- 
tives and friends followed the casket, 
among them being the Rev. L. M. Van 
Bokkelen of New York, B. C. and R. 
C. Van Bokkelen of Chicago, Mrs. 
William Thode of Baltimore, the Hon. 
J. J. H. Van Bokkelen of Port Town- 
send, N. Y., and W. K. and S. D. C. 
Van Bokkelen of Brooklyn. Bishop 
Coxe spoke briefly but eloquently upon 
the life and services of the departed 
clergyman, and dwelt upon some of the 
features of the great movements in 
which Dr. Van Bokkelen had been a 
leader as explaining some points in his 
character. 

The remains were taken to Chicago 
for burial, a large number of the mem- 
bers of the family accompanying them. 
A local newspaper gave the following 
estimate of his character and services 
to his fellowmen: 

"Dr. Van Bokkelen was indeed a re- 
markable man. He was a scholar who 
had become an authority on educational 
questions, a patriot and a philanthropist 
who dared to be an Abolitionist in a 
Southern community, an able business 
man, and, withal, a devout and earnest 
pastor. To few men has it been granted 
to do so much good in a lifetime, and 
none can leave a fairer fame as a 
legacy to their loved children." (See 
Buffalo Express, Nov. 2, 1889, p. 4.) 

Dr. Van Bokkelen's death was chron- 
icled all over the country, and long 
obituary notices were published in 
many of the daily papers, especially 
those of Buffalo, Baltimore and New 
York. His memory will long be re- 
vered both North and South as that of 
an earnest, forceful man who left his 
imprint on public affairs wherever he 
happened to go in the course of his long 
life. 

Though the bitterness of the sectional 
feeling occasioned by the Civil War has 
served to mar much of the sentiment 
once felt for him south of Mason and 
Di.xon's Line, yet many Southern men 
had good cause to revere his memory as 
that of a great educator who had guided 
their footsteps at the formative period 
of their lives, and the one-time pupils 
of St. Timothy's Hall moistened many 
a battlefield in Virginia and Maryland 
with their lifeblood during the four long 
years of war. 

[TO BE CONTINUED.] 



In any general estimate of Dr. Van 
Bokkelen's lifework and character it 
cannot be failed to mention his intense 
personality and great enthusiasm for 
any object upon which he had set his 
heart. A case in point is his attitude 
on Abolition, which was one of the rul- 
ing passions of his life. While still in 
his teens we find the following expres- 
sion of his strong feelings set down in 
his private journal under date of May 
17, 1835: 

•*I went to New York to the second 
anniversary meeting of the American 
Anti-Slavery Society and heard the 
famous English abolitionist, George 
Thompson. My heart was gladdened 
and my mind excited. I became more 
and more interested in the holy cause. 
If I am spared my voice shall be raised 
for the slave even unto death. If all 



During his ministry at Buffalo the 
rector emeritus of Trinity Church, the 
Rev. Edward Ingersoll, died on Feb. 6, 
1882. The following Sunday, Feb. 10, 
Dr. Van Bokkelen in the course of his 
sermon spoke thus feelingly of him: 

"The dear and Christian man whom 
we buried ran well his race, and now 
the prize is his. His works do follow 
him. Thoughts of these works are to- 
day in many minds. There are sweet 
memories of his words, fragrant recol- 
lections of his deeds. Could we hold 
converse with him this the first Lord's 
Day in the palace of King, he would tell 
us of the rapture his completed work 
brings to his sanctified spirit, and how 
it yearns to have the work finished 
which was left incomplete. He reviews 
his thirty years of labor in this church. 
He sees those whom he received into 



forsake me-father, mother, friends— I , covenant with Christ by holy baptism. 



not hesitate to plead for those who 
are in bonds. I pledge myself to the 
Gospel and to this cause. I believe I 
will live to see slavery abolished. My 
motto is. Onward. I will go in spite of 
the devil and all his hosts opposing. 
With God for my strength what need I 
fear!" 

And indeed many years later he was 
able to say: "The incidents of my life, 
upon which I look back with sincerest 
satisfaction, are those which in early 
youth connected me with the anti- 
slavery cause. While in Flushing I 
labored for the negro race by conduct- 
ing a night school and a Sunday school 
for colored adults and children in which 
I was assisted by members of the 
Society of Friends. At the close of the 
war I was an adviser of the emanci- 
pated slaves, helping them to build a 
school and church at Catonsville, and 
form habits of industry and frugality. 
In these efforts as in others, I had help- 
ers and hinderers; but holding to what 
was right before God and men of good 
will, I have never failed." 

During the course of his long career 
as educator and minister of the gospel 
Dr. Van Bokkelen must have made hun- 
dreds of addresses and delivered thou- 
sands of sermons, for there is every in- 
dication that he was a forceful and 
fluent speaker who was always ready to 
express his views before an audience. 
Most of these have gone unrecorded 
as he never seems to have published his 
speeches, but the titles of a few of them 
have been preserved and selections from 
them were occasionally given to the 
public at a later time. 

On June 22, 1865, he delivered an ad- 
dress on Higher Female Education at 
the annual commencement of the Balti- 
more Female College. 

Again on July 10, 1867, he made an 
address entitled On the Development of 
the Perceptive Faculties before the 
Second Annual Convention of the 
Teachers Association of the State of 
Maryland in session at Annapolis. 



the goodly company which he marshaled 
for the laying on of apostolic hands, 
the great army which he admitted to 
holy communion, and for whom he broke 
the bread of life. He counts them as a 
shepherd numbers his flock that he may 
know whether they are still safe in the 
fold. He thinks of those to whom he 
called, 'Turn ye; why will ye die?' but 
they gave no heed -men and women 
with whom he pleaded with earnest- 
ness, eloquence, and pathos, 'Be ye re- 
conciled to God!' What think you his 
earnest desire now is? It is that you 
join hands with Jesus. Requiescat in 
Pace." (Quoted by Mary E. Mixer, 
History of Trinity Church, Buffalo, 
1897, pp. 49-50.) 

The farewell words of Dr. Van Bok- 
kelen to his congregation were preached 
in Trinity Chapel, Easter even, 1886, 
from the comforting words of the 
Savior according to Saint John, "And I, 
if I be lifted up from the earth, will 
draw all men unto me." The opening 
sentences of the sermon were an ex- 
position of the text as suitable to the 
solemn incidents of the Savior's bitter 
passion and precious death. The con- 
cluding part directed the attention of 
the congregation to the three crosses 
which were erected on Calvary more 
than eighteen centuries ago, and con- 
cluded with an earnest appeal to his 
parishioners to choose the right way 
and accept salvation, that life might be 
happy, death glorious and eternity a 
season of everlasting joyfulness. 

A few words of farewell to his con- 
gregation, and his ministry was over. 

In his many notable sermons, in his 
public addresses connected with various 
questions of the day, in his intercourse 
with his brethren of the clergy, Doctor 
Van Bokkelen always won golden 
opinions. Liberal in his views, gener- 
ous in his impluses, in sympathy with 
all efforts to improve and benefit human- 
ity, he laid down his work with honor 
to himself and the respect of the whole 
community. 



C ATOMS VI LLE BIOGRAPHIES. 

A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 

BY 

GEORQE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 



Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 



III. REV. GEO. W. EBEUNQ, PH. D., 



Another well-known educator of Ca- 
tonsville, who in a sense succeeded Dr. 
Van Bokkelen in this field, was Dr. 
George W. Ebeling, Ph. D., of Overlea 
College. His career as a teacher ex- 
tended over nearly half a century, be- 
ginning as it did in Germany and end- 
ing in America. 

Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Ebeling, the 
subject of the present sketch, was born 
at Alt Wallmoden near Hildesheim in 
the Kingdom of Hanover, Germany, on 
December 13, 1821, the year that Napo- 
leon died. His family had been the 
hereditary owners of a small landed 
estate, which had been confiscated from 
them shortly before under the Napo- 
leonic regime in Germany. 

At the time of his son's birth the 
father was pastor of the Lutheran 
Church at Alt Wallmoden, a small vil- 
lage near the confines of the Hartz 
Mountains, and many years later a 
younger son. Dr. Martin Ebeling, held 
the same charge. 

A few years after his son Wilhelm 
was born the father was advanced to 
the position of Lutheran Superintendent 
with headquarters at the nearby village 
of Salzgitter. Thither the Ebeling 
family removed, and to this day some 
of their descendants continue to reside 
there. The father and mother are 
buried side by side near the vestibule 
of the old Lutheran Church at Salz- 
gitter, and in recent years their graves 
have been visited by various members 
of the family from America. 

As a boy Wilhelm, as he was usually 
called by those who knew him intimate- 
ly, attended schools at Hildesheim and 
Braunschweig, and graduated in 1841 
from a gymnasium at the latter place. 
Little of his life at this early period is 
now known to his descendants, but one 
can readily imagine that he was a dili- 
gent student of both the ancient and 
the modern languages, especially Latin 
for which he always manifested the 
greatest interest and which he was con- 
tinually quoting in after years. It is 
probable that during this time he 
studied Greek, Latin, French, English 
and German; afterwards he added to 
these Hebrew and Spanish. Thus it 
will readily be seen that his range of 
vision in linguistic matters was quite 
extended, and that he was well quali- 
fied to be a teacher in this field. 



In the autumn of 1841 he entered the 
University of Gottingen as a student of 
theology, living at first with a family 
named Tolle at 299 Rothestrasse, and 
later, after moving several times, with 
a Doctor Kirsten. The university he 
selected for the pursuit of his advanced 
studies was then at the height of its 
glory and influence as the favorite of 
the aristocracy of Germany, a position 
afterwards held by the University of 
Bonn. (See Personal-Bestand der 



Georg-Augusts-Universitat zu Gottin- 
gen, 1841-1845.) 

At the University young Ebeling 
seems to have devoted his attention 
largely to the study of philosophy in 
addition to the usual theological sub- 
jects, and to have become familiar with 
the teachings of Cicero, Kant and 
Schleiermacher more especially. In- 
stead of migrating from university to 
university, as is the custom with Ger- 
man students, the young candidate of 
theology chose to remain at Gottingen 
to the end of his course of four years. 

The expenses of these years were, 
however, too great for his slender purse, 
and in the summer of 1845 he was 
obliged to leave the university without 
attaining the degree for which he was 
striving; and it was only at a later time 
that his ambition in this direction was 
gratified. 



Various anecdotes of his university 
life used to be related by him many 
years later: How on one occasion he 
sat up all night and studied just to 
prove to himself that he could do it; 
and how on another with youthful folly 
he procured a pipe with a stem so long 
that the servant girl lighted it from the 
ground while he sat at a second-story 
window and smoked it. 

Five years later, in 1850, he finally 
received the degree of Doctor of Philos- 
ophy from the University of Gottingen 
upon the submission of a Latin diserta- 
tion on The Conscience as the Image of 
God. It was this degree which gave 
him the familiar title of Dr. Ebeling, as 
he never received any of the com- 
plimentary degrees so common in 
America. 

The central idea of the dissertation 
just mentioned was that there exists an 
inborn feeling in every one which in- 
tuitively judges between right and 
wrong; this feeling we call the Human 
Conscience, and the only rational way 
of accounting for its existence is to as- 
sume it is the divine spark implanted at 
birth in the soul of every human being. 
From the above brief outline it will 
be seen that Dr. Ebeling continued his 
studies at school and university unin- 
terruptedly from childhood until he had 
reached the age of twenty-three; and 
we can well imagine that in his father's 
home throughout this period there pre- 
vailed a decided literary atmosphere, 
for was not his father a Lutheran bis- 
hop and did not his younger brother 
Martin also become a student in theo- 
logy at Gottingen. 

The effects of his youthful surround- 
ings and scholarly training were ap- 
parent to the end of his long life, even 
after Dr. Ebeling had cut loose from his 
mtellectual moorings in Germany and 
emigrated to far-ofi: America at a time 
when universities were unknown on this 
side of the Atlantic. 
[TO BE CONTINUED.] 



CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 

A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 

BY 

QEORQE C. KEIDEL, ^H. D. 



Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 



III. REV. GEO. W. EBELINQ, PH. D., (Con.) 



Upon leaving the University of Gott- 
ingen he followed the course usually 
pursued by young theologians of his 
day and became a private tutor in the 
family of a nobleman. Through the in- 
fluence of a relative he received an ap- 
pointment in the family of Herr von 
Reden, who resided on his ancestral 
estate at Wendlinghausen in the pro- 
vince of Lippe. 

Here he remained six year (1845-1851) 
tutoring the two eldest sons Jobst and 
Paul von Reden. (See Gothaisches 
Genealogischea Taschenbuch, 1915, p. 
644.) As an educated gentleman he was 
here received as a member of the noble- 
man's family, and consequently moved 
more or less in aristocratic circles. His 
magnificent bass voice, and his skilful 
playing of the violincello, no doubt 
served him well during these years of 
cultured ease. While here he also had contained the following brief para- 



week later set sail for America from 
Bremerhaven on the ship Admiral in 
command of Captain Carl Wieting. 
This vessel is officially reported by the 
United States custom authorities to 
have been of six hundred and sixty-four 
tons burden and to have carried thirty- 
one cabin passengers and two hundred 
and sixty-eight steerage passengers — a 
mere pigmy in comparison with the 
giant German ocean steamers of the 
twentieth century. (See letter from 
Collector of Customs at Baltimore, Mar. 
30, 1915.) 

The voyage was long and trying, and 
the young theologian suffered so great- 
ly from seasickness that from that time 
until his death nearly fifty years later 
he refused to again venture upon the 
ocean depths. 

The Baltimore Sun, June 23, 1853, 



time to pursue his theological and lin 
guistic studies, write his doctor's dis- 
sertation, and receive his university de- 
gree. 

From 1851 to 1853 Dr. Ebeling taught 
in a boy's school at Braunschweig, and 
thus became used to handling a class of 
boys for the first time in his career. 

Whether he would have continued in 
this profession indefinitely, or whether 
he would later have received a pastoral 
charge, must remain problematical, for 
an event occurred about this time which 
changed the whole course of his life. 

It so happened that there was living 
at Salzgitter about the middle of the 
century a government physician Dr. 
Georg Keidel, who had an only daugh- 
ter Marie, then in her early twenties, 
who was keeping house for her widowed 
father and her six younger brothers. 

Daring his visits home Dr. Ebeling 
made the acquaintance of Fraulein 
Keidel, promptly fell in love with her, 
and soon became engaged to be married 
in the formal German way. But the 
young folks' dreams of happiness were 
destined soon to be rudely shocked. 

Early in the year 1853 Dr. Keidel an- 
nounced his intention of emigrating 
with his whole family to far-off Amer- 
ica, and a rending of family ties in 
som.e sort was inevitable. 

After much discussion it was decided 
that Dr. Ebeling should be ordained in 
Hanover as a Lutheran minister, that 
he and Fraulein Keidel should be mar- 
ried at once, and that then he would cut 
loose from his own family in Germany, 
and accompany his bride's family to the 



graph: 

"More Emigrants. — The Bremen ship 
Admiral, Capt. Welting, yesterday ar- 
rived at this port in 41 days from Liver- 
pool, via Bremen, having 300 passen- 
gers in the steerage, and 3,000 bushels 
salt. Consigned to Schaer & Kohler." 
This notice is evidently incorrect in 
several particulars, as the voyage for 
instance took seven weeks even from 
Bremen, May 4— June 22. 

The young couple arrived in Balti- 
more with a piano, a violincello, and 
some household effects; but they had 
very little money left after paying for 
their long journey from home. 

Before leaving Germany Dr. Ebeling 
had chanced to hear that the German 
Consul from Baltimore, Mr. F. L. 
Brands, was spending some time in 
Germany, and he therefore called on 
him to make some inquiries about 
America. 

The consul thereupon gave him a 
letter of introduction to his pastor, the 
well-known Lutheran divine Rev. John 
G. Morris. Soon after arriving in Balti- 
more Dr. Ebeling presented this letter, 
stating that it was their intention to 
continud their journey westward and 
settle in Missouri. But the pastor of 
the First Lutheran Church spoke earn- 
estly to him of the advantages of Balti 
more as a place of residence, and final- 
ly succeeded in persuading Dr. Ebeling 
as well as the whole Keidel family to 
remain in Maryland. 

Thus the new arrivals became mem- 
bers of the large German colony living 
at that time on the banks of the 
Patapsco, an event which proved de- 
cisive in its influence on the subsequent 



New World. ^,^,,^ .„ .„., 

Accordingly the young couple were j hiVt'oV'of the" wholefamily group" 
married on April 28, 1853, and about al [to hk coxTl.NrEHl 



Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 



III. REV. GEO. W. EBELINQ, PH. D., (Con.) 



As soon as Dr. and Mrs. Ebeling had 
settled themselves in a Baltimore home 
the question of earning a livelihood be- 
came a pressing one, and so to make 
some sort of a beginning a sign was 
placed on the house announcing that 
Dr. Ebeling was prepared to teach the 
Ancient and Modern Languages, etc. 
At the very bottom there was added: 
Vocal and Instrumental Music; and to 
his great astonishment the first pupil 
that applied desired piano lessons. So 
he at once set himself diligently to work 
to improve the slight knowledge of this 
art which he happened to have previous- 
ly acquired. 

While Dr. Ebeling thus practised his 
bride sat by his side and read aloud to 
him to wile away the time. By the use 
of a dumb piano this method of work 
became feasible, and the importance of 
music teaching in America as a means 
of gaining a living added the needed in- 
centive. This diligence established the 
habit of practising exercises, and he 
soon developed an unusual pliability in 



the former minister had deemed it 
necessary one night to fire off his pistol 
from the church parsonage to let peo- 
ple know he was armed. Dn. Ebeling, 
however, by the use of great tact in his 
dealings with the parishioners succeeded 
in overcoming the dissension, and in 
consequence the congregation soon be- 
gan to grow and to share in the general 
prosperity which came to the whole 
countryside just prior to the Civil War. 

In the spring of 1855 Dr. Ebeling ac- 
cordingly moved from the city to Ca- 
tonsville, living at first in the small 
parsonage by the side of the church 
with his wife and young son William, 
who had been born the previous sum- 
mer in Baltimore. His first home in 
Catonsville, therefore, was a frame 
dwelling of four rooms which is still 
standing, and which for many years 
afterwards was the residence of the 
teacher in charge of the German church 
school adjoining. 

Owing to his small salary as minister 
Dr. Ebeling was obliged to rely chiefly 



the use of his fingers, while at the same on the revenue derived from giving 



time acquiring a very delicate touch. 
(See letter from Herman L. Ebeling, 
June 29, 1915.) 

Soon after settling in Baltimore Dr. 
Ebeling secured a position as organist 
in an Episcopal church through the in- 
fluence of Mr. Samuel Davis, who was 
obliged to give him a signal whenever 
he was to begin or stop playing. This 
adventure led eventually to his forming 
the acquaintance of Miss Fredericka 
Karthaus, who afterwards became Dr. 
Keidel's second wife. 

Towards the end of the following year 
Dr. Ebeling heard that there was a 
vacancy in a small German church 
which had been organized about five 
years before by a group of Germans 
living in Catonsville and the surround- 
ing country. Accordingly on December 
26, 1854 (Second Christmas Day) he 
drove out to the country and preached 
to the new congregation. The result 
was that he soon after became the pas- 
tor of Salem Church, succeeding the 
late Rev. Mr. Brockmann. 

This event was the determining factor 
for the remaining forty-si.x years of his 
life, and ended furthermore by drawing 
all of his wife's family to Catonsv 
as well. 

Being an ordained minister he deemed 
it his duty to exercise his holy calling, 
and so accepted this charge rather from 
a sense of duty than because of any 
pecuniary reward. For the congrega- 
tion was few in numbers and poor of 
purse, the salary of the minister being' 
only one hundred dollars a year. 

His congregation he found in a state 
of disorganization, with one faction of 
seventeen members threatening to 
withdraw. Feeling was so tense that 



private lessons and from teaching in 
various schools in order to support his 
family. As his pupils were widely 
scattered in the early years of his resi- 
dence in Catonsville it was necessary 
for him to keep a team and drive from 
place to place. 

Some of his pupils lived in Baltimore, 
some in Wetheredsville and elsewhere 
in the country. It was while on a trip 
to the latter place to give a music 
lesson that his horse ran away. Doctor 
Ebeling was thrown from his carriage 
and his collarbone broken. His lady 
pupils at Wetheredville later showed 
their appreciation of his services by 
presenting the young couple with some 
silverware. 

During these years he also taught in 
the Phelps School at Ellicott City, later 
known as the Patapsco Institute; and 
on one occasion he walked from Ca- 
tonsville to Ellicott City, gave his les- 
sons, and then walked back again to his 
home on Ingleside avenue. At this 
time Dr. Ebeling was in his thirties 
and enjoying all the vigor of young 
manhood in spite of a slight affection 
of the heart which he had had all his 
life and which in the end was the cause 
of his death. 

As a child in Germany he had been so 
puny and delicate that his parents had 
feared lest they would be unable to 
raise him. But as he grew older he 
grew stronger, and ended by enjoying 
really good health throughout his long 
life. It seems probable that the fact 
of his living in the healthful surround- 
ings of the country for so many 
years had much to do with his general 
physical welfare and survival to ex- 
treme old age. 

[TO BE CONTINUED.] 



CATONSl/ILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 

A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 

BY 

QEORQE C. KEIDEL, PH. D, 



III. 



Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 
REV. GEO. W. EBELINQ, PH. D., (Con.) 



While it is undoubtedly true that Dr. 
Ebeling's lifework was in the main 
that of a teacher, yet he also had a 
career of nearly half a century as a 
minister of the gospel both in Catons- 
ville and elsewhere in Maryland. 

During the years 1855 and 1856 he as- 
sumed the pastoral duties of Jerusalem 
Church at Gardenville, Baltimore Coun- 
ty, Md., and was wont to drive over 
from Catonsville at stated intervals to 
preach in German to the congregation. 
(See letter from Rev. P. C. Burgdorf, 
Ph. D , June 24, 1915.) But the trip 
over country road and city road and 
city street was an arduous one, and he 
soon felt himself obliged to give up this 
charge. 

When a new church building was 
erected at Gardenville some twenty 
years later Dr. Ebeling took part in the 
dedication services on May 7, 1876, and 
made a short address in German. (See 
Baltimore Gazette, May 8, 1876, p. 4, 
col. 3.) 

The German Lutheran congregation 
at Ellicott City, Howard county, Md., 
also received somewhat of his fostering 
pastoral care many years ago. 

A third subsidiary charge held by Dr. 
Ebeling for many years was the Ger- 
man Lutheran church on the Old Court 
Road near the Liberty Pike and not far 
from Hebbville. Here for many years 
Dr Ebeling was accustomed to hold 
religious services on Sunday afternoons 
after having taken the long drive over 
from Catonsville. 

During the exciting times experienced 
in Maryland at the time of the Civil 
War Dr. Ebeling, though himself favor- 
ing the North, was careful to refrain 
from showing his feelings in his pulpit 
utterances and thus by tactful silences 
on his part the war cloud passed over 
his little flock without producing any 
great upheaval of feelings or financial 
catastrophe in the church. 



About this time a number of German 
Lutheran congregations in Maryland, 
finding themselves out of harmony with 
the strong Northern feelings of their 
English brethern of the Maryland 
Synod, formed a new synod, and Dr. 
Ebeling and his congregation associated 
themselves with the new movement. 

The official organ of this synod was a 
small church paper known as the Deut- 
scher Hausfreund, and for some years 
in the seventies Dr. Ebeling acted a.s 
the managing editor of this literary 
venture. The press-work was done in 
Baltimore, but the copies were distri- 
buted to the subscribers from the 
editor's residence Overlea. 

Dr. Ebeling's salary as pastor of the 
German Lutheran Church in Catonsville 
had been gradually advanced from one 
hundred to seven hundred dollars as the 
congregation had prospered. Butfinan- 
cial reverses had come to him with ad- 
vancing years and failing strength, and 
so in the early eighties he thought seri- 
ously of giving up his Catonsville home 
and accepting a charge in the city of 
Baltimore. 



But his congregation were loath to 
give up their old pastor after so 
many years of faithful service, and so 
with the assistance of relatives and 
friends his salary was raised to a thou- 
sand dollars, at which figure it remain- 
ed until his death many years later. 

Soon another problem of grave im- 
portance arose in the management of 
the church: the older members who had 
been born in Germany kept dropping 
off one by one, few new recruits came 
to take thair places, and the younger 
generations knew little if any German. 
And so by degrees the English language 
made greater and greater inroads on 
the foreign tongue. 



The minor services of the church 
came gradually to be held in English, 
the movement away from the German 
of the Fatherland became more and 
more pronounced, until finally in the 
late nineties the plan of holding ser- 
vices alternately in German and English 
was adopted as a makeshift. (See 
George C. Keidel, A Typical Language 
Problem: Its Solution at Catonsville, 
Md., in Lutheran Observer, Feb. 4, 

1898, p. 5, cols. 1-2.) 

Soon after this language question had 
been temporarily settled the chief event 
in the history of Salem Church occurred, 
namely its Golden Jubilee, September 
30, 1899. The official celebration was 
held on the nearest Sunday, October 1, 

1899, and the church on the hill was 
filled to overflowing with friends both 
old and new. 

An elaborate program was carried 
out in the presence of many visiting 
Lutheran clergymen, of prominent Ger- 
mans from the neighborhood, and of 
more than a dozen of the original 
members of the congregation. The 
venerable pastor himself gave interest- 
ing personal reminiscences connected 
with the early history of the church. 
Rev. L. M. Zimmerman and Dr. Ph. 
Henninghausen followed with appro- 
priate jubilee addresses, the choir ren- 
dered special music, and the exercises 
were concluded by an address on the 
financial history of the church by the 
secretary of the church council. 

This important calebration in the his- 
tory of the German Lutheran Church 
of Catonsville was widely reported in 
both the secular and religious press. 
The Catonsville Argus published a full- 
page history of the church, the Balti- 
more papers both English and German 
repeatedly devoted space to its many 
interesting features, and the Lutheran 
Observer published a long article with 
a picture of the old church and a por- 
trait of its aged pastor. 

The Protestant Germans of Catons- 
ville and vicinity felt that by this not- 
able celebration honor had been done 
where honor was due, and the vener- 
able pastor of the flock looked back on 
the forty-five years of his ministry with 
the satisfied feeling that his work had 
been well done. 



CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES: 

A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 

BY 

QEORQE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 



Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 



III. REV. GEO. W. EBELINQ, PH. D., (Con.) 



Soon after coming to Catonsville Dr. 
Ebeling acquired a great spirit of en- 
terprise and undertook real estate and 
other operations whose daring was 
truly remarkable. It was this great 
activity of mind and body which quickly 
forced him into the public attention and 
won for him a noteworthy place in the 
history of ths village. 

On August 9, 1855, he purchased a 
tract of land from John Steele and wife 
(See Towson Land Records 12.360), 
giving a mortgage on it to the former 
owner (See Mortgage Records 6.493). 
This was the place on Ingleside avenue 
which was later the site of a butchering 
establishment for many years, and it 
was here that his second son Herman 
Louis was born in 1857. 

A second piece of real estate was 
bought by Dr. Ebeling on May 21, 1856, 
from George F. Rentz and wife (See 
Land Records 15.262), a mortgage on it 
being given to Charles E. Philips, 
Trustee, (See Mortgage Records, 7.393). 
On October 24, 1857, a third place was 
bought from Frederick Misel and wife 
(See Land Records 20. 65). These three 
places all adjoined each other, and they 
were located on the East side of Ingle- 
side avenue about one-half mile north 
of the Frederick Turnpike. Together 
they formed a considerable tract of 
land which later received the name of 
Overlea, and which afterwards under- 
went many changes both as to shape 
and size, but which still retains the old 
name. 

About the year 1860 Dr. Ebeling con- 
ceived the ambitious scheme of start- 
ing a large boys' academy on his newly 
acquired property, and being advised by 
his friends that it was essential to the 
success of his project to erect an im- 
posing structure, he proceeded to put 
up a large stone building resembling 
somewhat a castle on the Rhine. Being 
located on the top of a considerable 
ridge, and having a total height of 
fifty-six feet, Overlea dominates the 
landscape for a great distance in all di- 
rections, and formerly commanded a 
good view of Baltimore and the Chesa- 
peake Bay. 



As St. Timothy's Hall declined the 
new school flourished, and its rise to a 
position of importance in the local edu- 
cational world was rapid after its open- 
ing in the fall of 1861. (See reports of 
Commissioner of Education, Washing- 
ton, D. C, issued annually.) 

The easiest mode of approach to the 
school from the omnibus line on the 
Frederick Turnpike was over Dr. Van 
Bokkelen's extensive meadow (now 
East Catonsville); and hence the school- 
boys soon christened it Overlea, and by 
this name the school was known until it 
was closed some thirty-five years later. 
At first it was officially known as Over- 
lea School, then as Overlea College,and 
finally as Overlea Home School. Dr. 
Ebeling retained the principalship of 
the school until 1892, when he turned it 
over to his eldest son. 

Students came from far and near, 

Cuba being especially well represented 
for many years. Many well-known 
men of Catonsville and Baltimore re- 
ceived a part of their early training 
here, the most prominent alumnus thus 
far having been the late Isidor Rayner, 
United States Senator from Maryland. 
But when the Civil War had come to 
a close, and the public schools of Mary- 
land began to improve rapidly, a period 
of decline came over the old school in 
the late seventies and early eighties, the 
number of pupils at one time being re- 
duced to eight. The general school 
situation at this time has been well ex- 
pressed by a writer in the Maryland 
School Journal of 1879, p. 75: 



"At the commencement of the public 
system, there was an abundance of 
private schools, seminaries and acade- 
mies, many of them excellent in their 
Way; and a well-to-do parent could send 
his child to a public or private school, as 
he pleased. But in course of time, the 
public schools advancing in efficiency, 
while the private schools remained 
stationery, parents who are both able 
and willing to pay for the tuition of 
their children, withdraw their sons from 
the private and send them to the public 
schools, not because the latter are 
cheaper, but because they are, on the 
whole, better. Thus private schools 
have been broken down all over the 
State of Maryland, and in many other 
states. No city in the Union had a 
larger list of good private schools than 
Baltimore, twenty years ago. A refer- 
ence to the advertising columns of The 
Sun will show that we have not half as 
many today; and it is well known that 
but few of those in existence have any 
special merits. There are fathers and 
mothers who value social consideration 
higher than mere literary culture, and 
for them there will always be a private 
asylum, presided over by a lady of good 
family, but in reduced circumstances. 
But the private school, as an institu- 
tion, is dead in Maryland. The public 
school has killed it; and the public 
school is now compelled to do both the 
work originally cut out for it, and the 
work done by the private school which 
it has superseded." 

As an evidence of the wide range of 
linguistic studies pursued at Overlea 
the principal planned on one occasion a 
special commencement to which the 
pastors of the village churches were 
invited, whereupon the older students 
of the school declaimed selections in 
three several ancient languages and 
four modern languages. 

In the late eighties and the early 
nineties a revival of prosperity came to 
Overlea Home School and once more the 
old mansion was filled with boarding 
pupils. But soon conditions changed 
again and the tide ebbed, until finally 
the school was permanently abandoned. 
The memories of old Overlea will, 
however, last for many a year, and it 
may be well past the middle of the 
twentieth century before the last 
alumnus passes away. 

[TO HE CONTINUED] 



CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 

A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 

BY 

QEORQE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 



Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 



III. REV. GEO. W. EBELINQ, PH. D., (Con.) 



In addition to his labors in school and 
church Dr. Ebeling took a great inter- 
est from time to time in various other 
matters of local concern. 

At the time when he first came to 
Catonsville there existed a long and 
narrow lane which led southward from 
the Old Frederick road to a new settle- 
ment of German emigrants officially 
known in the land records as German- 
town. This lane had at that time no 
southern outlet, although it had been 
intended to extend it for a mile or more 
to the westward to intersect existing 
roads. 

Dr. Ebeling soon took up this ques- 
tion and, abandoning the original pro- 
ject, opened a road from the end of the 
lane to Ingleside Avenue. This was 
called Stony Lane; but of late years it 
has been widened and rechristened as 
Harlem Avenue. 

Another and more important road pro- 
ject in which Dr. Ebeling took an active 
part was the opening of Edmondson 
Avenue from the Old Frederick Road 
to Ingleside Avenue. 

In 1876 a group of citizens living near 
the western limits of Baltimore City 
determined to open a new avenue from 
the old city boundary line to the Old 
Frederick Road. The new road was to 
be known as Edmondson Avenue be- 
cause it was planned as an extension of 
the Baltimore street of that name. 

When Dr. Ebeling and other exten- 
sive landowners living nearer Catons- 
ville heard of this plan they immediate- 
ly formed a subsidiary committee to 
continue the new road as far as Ingle- 
side Avenue. After much discussion 
this project was carried tlirough, but 
the opposition of several large land- 
owners who objected to the new avenue 
being cut diagonally through their coun- 
try places was so determined that 
eventually it was found necessary to 
adopt a zigzag course as a compromise. 
This peculiar location of the road is still 
apparent to every rider on the Ellicott 
City electric cars and has proved a 
great annoyance to the traveling public 
in general. But it was probably Dr. 
Ebeling's enthusiasm and persistence 
that made the new road possible at 
all. 



Some time in the seventies Dr. Ebel- 
ing also, after much experience as a 
teacher, undertook to himself write an 
English grammar. Being a German, 
however, his thoughts naturally took 
form in his native language, and in that 
language he wrote down his proposed 
book. After this he himself translated 
it into English; but not altogether trust- 
ing his command of that to him foreign 
language, he took his completed manu- 
script to his neighbor and connection 
Mrs. Louis J. Keidel and asked her as- 
sistance in correcting his English style. 
This request was cheerfully complied 
with, and then the copy was given over 
into the hands of a Baltimore printer. 

In the expectation of being able to 
introduce his textbook into the schools 
of the state and country Dr. Ebeling 
determined to secure legal protection 
for the new work. Accordingly on 
December 28, 1878, he addressed a 
letter from Catonsville to the Librarian 
of Congress at Washington, D. C, 
"claiming copyright in the United States 
arid reserving "all rights" connected 
with it, especially the "right of trans- 
lation." (See original letter preserved 
in the Copyright Office ) 

That copyright was duly secured is 
evidenced by the following entry on the 
official records (1878, No. 15635 I.): 
Library of Congress, to wit: 

Be it Remembered, That on the 31st 
day of December anno domini 1878, 
Rev. George W. Ebeling, of Catons- 
ville, Md., has deposited in this office 
the title of a Book the title or descrip- 
tion of which is in the following words, 
to wit: The Sentence and its parts. 
An analytical syntax for the use of ad- 
vanced classes of schools, and for self- 
instruction By George W. Ebeling, 
Ph. D. All rights reserved. The right 
whereof he claims as author, in con- 
formity with the laws of the United 
States respecting Copyrights. 

A. R. Spoflford, 
Librarian of Congress. 
2c. of the above publication deposited 
February 17, 1879. 



Soon after the publication of this 
English grammar the author endeavored 
to introduce it in the public schools of 
Baltimore and to make it generally 
known to the educational world The 
Maryland School Journal of April, 1879, 
published a short notice of it which read 
thus: 

"Original, philosophical and practical ; 
we commend it to the attention of all 
who are engaged in giving language 
lessons." 

The following quotation may serve to 
indicate the general character of the 
book (pp. 18-19): 

We imagine seeing a man enter this 
world. By using the personal pronoun, 
he shows that he finds himself to be an 
individual, separate from the rest of the 
world He gives names (nouns) to the 
things. His mathematical eye distin- 
guishes matter which can only be meas- 
ured, from those things which he 
counts. Of some of these only one 
specimen exists, the names of which he 
calls "proper nouns;" of other things 
there are many, and he calls their 
names: "common nouns." 

At the end of his little book of some 
seventy pages he gives a few speci- 
mens of English composition, among 
which may be especially mentioned the 
last one entitled the Power of Music, a 
subject which always lay very near his 
heart. 

But in the end the author's fond hopes 
of a wide circulation of his textbook 
were not realized, and he could only use 
it in his own school, which he did for 
some years. The greater portion of the 
some sixteen hundred copies was never 
disposed of, and his one published work 
has sunk into the oblivion of the things 
that have been. 



CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 

A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 

BY 

QEORQE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 



Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 



HI. REV. GEO. W. EBELINQ, PH. D., (Con.) 



As the weight of advancing years 
obliged Dr. Ebeling to gradually with- 
draw more and more from his public 
activities he devoted most of his time 
to the cultivation of his extensive vine- 
yard at Overlea and to the society of 
the numerous friends that came to visit 
him. For many years he was accus- 
tomed to take an afternoon drive 
through Catonsville and around the 
neighborhood, being usually accom- 
panied by his faithful wife who watched 
over him continually during his declin- 
ing years. 

Thus passed the evening of his long 
life! 

A slight stoke of paralysis when he 
was about 75 years old brought with it 
a loss of physical power, and gradually 
his heart (which had never been strong) 
grew less and less able to meet the de- 
mands made upon it. 

In the spring of 1901 he was obliged 
to give up his ministerial duties, and 
was thenceforth confined to his home. 
During the ensuing summer he failed 
from week to week and from day to 
day, until on September 25 the end 
came. 

On the 27th the funeral took place in 
his old church in the presence of a large 
concourse of relatives, friends and 
parishioners. He was laid to rest by i 
the side of the church in which he had 
preached for more than forty-six years, 
and a few years later his widow was 
laid by his side. The summit of the hill [ 
where he now lies commands a view of 
Overlea on the ridge opposite, where 
for forty years he lived his life of labor 
and love. 

Thus far from his native land and 
own blood kindred he sleeps the sleep 
of the just after a long and useful 
ewrthly pilgrimage most of which was 
spent in the land of his adoption and in i 
the village which he loved so well. 
(Compare also tribute in Argus, Octo- j 
ber 5, 1901.) I 

In any general retrospect of Dr. Ebel- 
ing's life there naturally come to mind 
certain characteristics which are de- 
serving of mention. 



His general lack of worldly wisdom, 
of which he himself was only too con- 
scious, led him repeatedly to undertake 
ambitious schemes which he was wholly 
unable to carry out. One of these 
grandiose plans was the building of a 
large organ in the parlor of his home at 
Overlea, and in fact his house was 
planned chiefly with this end in view. 
Its main feature was a large concert 
hall with a stone arch at one end to 
hold the organ, while a water-tank in 
the tower was intended to supply the 
motive power for working the bellows. 
The grounds about his home were al- 
so laid out on an elaborate scale after 
the German fashion with which he had 
become familiar in his younger days, 
while beautiful evergreens and Paw- 
loonia trees soon added their distinctive 
charm. 

At a later time he undertook to erect 
a conservatory for hothouse grapes, but 
this too was destined to prove a failure 
like many others which he attempted to 
put into execution after the true manner 
of a dreamer of dreams. 

Another phase of his life in Catons- 
ville likewise deserves mention, as one 
of his friends has recently remarked. 
The charm of his personality coupled 
with the attractive features of his home 
at Overlea made the latter a rendezous 
for notable personalities of many sorts. 
It would indeed have been an interest- 
ing memorial if a record of their com- 
ings and goings had been kept. 

Most of the leading amateur and pro- 
fessional musicians of Baltimore were 
at one time or another guest at Over- 
lea. Clergymen from many parts of 
the world, literary and university men 
from far and wide came to visit him. 
Fond parents of the school boys, 
parishoners, relatives and friends flock- 
ed to his hospitable mansion, where open 
house was the usual order of the day. 
Several artists of local fame in Mary- 
land painted oil portraits of him, two of 
which for many years adorned his parlor 
at Overlea; and at the time of the 
church jubilee his benign old face be- 
came a familiar one to the readers of 
the church and secular papers. 



His method of preparing his Sunday 
morning sermons may also be noted as 
characteristic. During the early part 
of the week his mind would dwell on 
some general subject, and then on Fri- 
day night he would take down his Ger- 
man Bible and read over the assigned 
passage for the following Sunday. Con- 
tinuing his meditations on the chosen 
text from that time until the appointed 
hour he was able to deliver his sermon 
in his native tongue without the assist- 
ance of notes of any kind. 

In 1897 a large local biographical 
work was published by a New York 
firm, and in this a personal sketch with 
estimate of his character and influence 
was given. (See Genealogy and Bio- 
graphy of Leading Families of the City 
of Baltimore and Baltimore County, 
Maryland, p. 224.) 

Towards the end of his life his 
thoughts reverted frequently to his old 
home in Germany, the successes and 
failures of his long life passing before 
his mind's eye one after another, and 
the conviction becoming ever stronger 
with him that his life as the last cham- 
pion of German Lutheranism in bis 
adopted home was rapidly drawing to a 
close. 

On October 13, 1901, a memorial ser- 
vice was held in the church, and with it 
the old German regime passed into his- 
tory. 



C ATOMS VI LLE BIOGRAPHIES. 

A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 

BY 

GEORGE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 



Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 



IV. DR. ADALBERT J, VOLCK. 



Among the artists who have lived in 
Catonsville at one time or another un- 
doubtedly the most talented was the 
late Dr. Adalbert J. Volck, who for 
more than twenty years claimed the 
village as his home and for more than 
three score years was prominent in the 
art circles of Baltimore. 

During the first half of the last cen- 
tury there resided in the ancient town 
of Augsburg, in Bavaria, Germany, a 
manufacturer of wealth, culture and of 
high personal standing and influence 
named Volck, a scion of the famous 
Strakonitch family. 

To him were born two sons of decided 
artistic tendencies, one of whom, the 
young Adalbert Johann Volck, soon 
gave evidence of a more than common 
gift, which was destined to one day bear 
rich and abundant fruit in far-ofi' 
America. 

While the sons were still mere lads 
the family removed to Nuremberg, 
sacred in the world of art as the home 
of the immortal Albert Durer. Ludwig, 
one of the most liberal patrons art has 
ever known, was then reigning over 
Bavaria, his reason yet unimpared, and 
under his fostering care genius in every 
form was finding its highest expression. 

At Nuremberg were still assembled 
Pilatti, Caulbach, Cornelius and Swan- 
thaler, and in this congenial atmos- 
phere the young Adalbert found his 
artistic tastes rapidly unfold. All the 
time that could be spared from his 
studies at the local polytechnic school 
was spent in one or the other of the 
studios of these masters, who recogniz- 
ing the lad's gift generously aided in its 
development. 

Unfortunately for his future artistic 
career this favorable development was 
soon marred by an antagonistic influence 
which quickly ensnared the young stu- 
dent. From Nuremberg he migrated 
to the nearby art centre Munich, and 
here he fell in with members of the 
Burschenschaf t, a society of insurgents 
whose membership extended through- 
out all the petty kingdoms now gath- 
ered into the great German Empire. 



With youthful enthusiasm the lad 
threw himself heart and soul into the 
cause, which had for its object to cir- 
cumvent the efforts of Bismarck toward 
the formation of the empire with Prus- 
sia as its cornerstone, and the granting 
of constitutional rights to all the sepa- 
rate states alike. 

With the revolutionary army thus as- 
sembled young Volck, then but nineteen 
years of age, marched to Berlin and 
took part in the big battle which 
wrested from King Frederick of Prus- 
sia, great uncle of the present German 
Emperor, and his Iron Choncellor, the 
promise of the desired constitution. 

But alas! as history tells, no sooner 
were the insurgents disbanded than the 
promise just given under great pres- 
sure was quietly revoked by those in 
power. King Ludwig, recalHng his 
own subjects, punished them like 
naughty boys by giving them a chance 
to test their love of warfare by four 
, years forced service in the Bavarian 
Army. 

The high spirit of young Volck re- 
belled at this summary treatment, and 
he made a precipitate escape tc the land 
of recognized freedom— America. It 
was in 1848 that he thus cut loose from 
his moorings in the Fatherland and en- 
tered upon a life of adventure in a 
strange land. 

His first stopping place in this coun- 
try was Boston, and it is easy to imagine 
him the typicaldescendant of his Teuton 
forefathers as pictured throughout the 
ages: a stalwart youth, fair-haired, fair- 
skinned and ble-eyed, with the simple 
manners and tender-heartedness of a 
child. He was, furthermore, both 
ignorant of the ways of the country and 
of its language, with few if any friends. 
From a position of affluence, amid an 
environment of culture and refinement, 
he suddenly found himself reduced to 
the level of the hewers of wood and 
drawers of water for a bare subsist- 
ence. His father was unable to help 
him, as he himself was compelled to pay 
a heavy fine for the son's desertion, 
while any hint leading to the where- 
abouts of the latter being ascertained 
would havd meant his eventual recap- 
ture and punishment. 



But against all obstacles the young 
exile retained his brave spirit un- 
daunted, and evidenced the same in- 
tense enthusiasm for any noble cause 
which appealed strongly to his sym- 
pathies and ideal conception of life. In 
the new land of his choice he did what- 
ever his hand -the strong, firm hand 
with its infinite variety of delicate cun- 
ning—found to do, and did it with all 
his might. 

His subsequent long and often-times 
exciting career in America amply bears 
out the truth of this statement. It is 
therefore all the more to be deplored 
that his lack of worldly wisdom, coupled 
with his devotion to one losing cause 
after another throughout his life, con- 
tinually kept his nose on the grind- 
stone, as he was wont to express it 
himself. 

As one of his daughters has lately put 
it, his splendid mind was so filled with 
the conception of his beautiful art works 
that he seemed to loose sight of the 
practical side of life. This was greatly 
regretted by him in his later years, 
when it seemed painful for him to speak 
of what he termed "the mistakes of his 
life." (Adapted from Baltimore 
American, June 20, 1909, and letter of 
Miss Fanny B. Volck, July 27, 1915.) 
[TO BH CO.VTINUED.] 



CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 

A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 

BY 

GEORQE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 



Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 



IV. DR. ADALBERT J. VOLCK. (Con.) 



Adalbert J. Volck was born on April 
14, 1828, and he was thus just at the 
threshold of maohood when he reached 
America about twenty years later. 

After staying in Boston a short time 
he drifted west, and we next find him 
in St. Louis, where a brother-in-law had 
founded a Lutheran church. 

But in 1849 the gold fever broke out 
in all its violence, and the young artist 
at once joined in the mad rush to Cali- 
fornia. This golden delusion soon 
evaporated, and the same year we find 
that he had drifted back all the way to 
Baltimore, where he was destined to 
spend the remainder of his four score 
years and three. 

Here he shortly entered the oflnce of 
Dr. Chapin A. Harris, who with Dr. 
Horace M. Hayden founded the Balti- 
more College of Dental Surgery in 1851, 
the first of its kind in the world. Young 
Volck entered here as one of its first 
students and graduated with the class 
of 1852. In his last years Dr. Volck, as 
we may henceforth suitably call him, 
came to be its oldest living graduate. 
(See Fifty-second Annual Catalogue of 
the Baltimore College of Dental Sur- 
gery, Baltimore, Md., p. IL) 

Very early in his career as a dentist 
Dr. Volk began making trips to Somer- 
set County on the Eastern Shore of 
Maryland in order to practice his new 
profession. One of the oldest em- 
ployees in the Library of Congress at 
Washington, Arthur Crisfield, once a 
soldier in the Confederate Army and 
later Assistant Register of Copyrights, 
vividly recalls that Dr. Volck filled 
some teeth for him on one of these trips 
prior to the year 1850, which fillings are 
still doing good service after a lapse of 
sixty-five years. 

Among his early patients was a Miss 
Letitia Roberta Alleyn of Baltimore. 
The acquaintance thus formed soon 
ripened into a lasting and deep-rooted 
love, and on July 6, 1852, the young 
couple were united in holy wedlock by 
the Rev. A. Webster of Baltimore. 
(See Baltimore Sun, July 7, 1852, p. 2, 
col. 4; Baltimore Clipper, July 8, 1852, 
p. 3, col. 1.) 



- Five children were born of this union, 
two sons and three daughters, all of 
whom reached maturity. One of the 
sons and two of the daughters survived 
both of their parents, even though the 
latter had married early in life and sur- 
vived to extreme old age. Mrs. Volck 
in fact died in the year of their golden 
wedding. 

After graduation Dr. Volck continued 
the practice of dentistry, and in 1855 
his office and home were at 75 Lexing- 
ton street, now in the shopping centre 
of the metropolis of Maryland, but 
then near the edge of the growing 
town. By 1858 his oflBce and home had 
been transferred to 121 N. Charles 
street, and it was his Charles street 
abode that was to become famous in 
later years when the really important 
epoch of his life was destined to occur. 
About the year 1859 Dr. Volck re- 
moved his family to Catonsville, where 
he purchased a large country place on 
Ingleside Avenue about half a mile 
north of the Frederick Turnpike. This 
place lay to the west of the avenue, 
with which it was connected by a long 
lane, and of late years it has been the 
residence of the Gieske family. 

Having acquired this suburban prop- 
erty, he was able to indulge in fuller 
measure than before his artistic tastes 
by the planting out of large fruit trees 
removed from Druid Hill Park at the 
time of its purchase by the City of Bal- 
timore from the Rogers family, by the 
establishing of a small deer preserve, 
and in similar extravagant ways. 



He continued, however, to maintain 
his city oflSce and residence for some 
years, and thus was enabled to enjoy 
the pleasures of both modes of living. 
Soon after he had established himself 
in Catonsville the Civil War broke out 
in all its fury, and Dr. Volck at once 
threw himself into the contest on the 
side of the Confederacy with all the 
enthusiasm of his ardent soul. He did 
not, however, enlist in the Southern 
army, but rather took it upon himself 
to serve the cause in many other ways, 
as will appear below: 

"He espoused the Confederate cause 
at its incipiency, and was a special 
agent of the Confederate Government, 
scorning any pay. He personally con- 
ducted across the Potomac River in a 
private boat artizans, skilled mechanics 
and men seeking service in the Con- 
federate Army. Strange to say, he was 
never apprehended. Money which he 
had made by his profession and varied 
talents, he invested in Confederate 
bonds, feeling confident of the success 
of the cause, so at the end of the War 
he was absolutely cleaned out, having 
left to him only the memory of his 
deeds, which he was of too modest a 
nature to dilate upon." (See letter of 
Major Wm. M. Pegram, Aug. 16, 1915.) 
Dr. Volck frequently ran the block- 
ade into Virginia as the carrier of dis- 
spatches, and also often had Confeder- 
ate soldiers concealed in his house on 
Charles street, which served as a ren- 
dezvous for Southern sympathizers. 

In this attitude he was upheld by a 
great many of his German compatriots 
in Baltimore, who commonly sided with 
the Confederacy during those four try- 
ing years. 

And indeed at one time he came under 
the suspicion of the Federal authorities 
and lived in daily fear of arrest. 

[TO BE CONTINUED.) 



CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 

A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 

BY 

GEORGE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 



Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 



IV. DR. ADALBERT J. VOLCK. (Con.) 



On April 19, 1861, a Massachusetts 
regiment in marching through the 
streets of Baltimore from President 
Street Station to Camden Station was 
attacked by an angry mob of Southern 
sympathizers. 

About two weeks after this event 
Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, after several 
interviews with Gen. Winfield S. Scott 
at Washington, was ordered to seize 
and hold the junction of the Washing- 
ton branch of the Baltimore & Ohio 
Railroad with the main line leading 
westward to Harper's Ferry. Accord- 
ingly Gen. Butler with the Sixth Massa- 
chussetts' Regiment seized the viaduct 
at the Relay House and put in position 
a battery of light artillery. 

About a week later he loaded a por- 
tion of his force on a train and started 
in the direction of Harper's Ferry. But 
this was only a ruse, and the train soon 
reversed its engine and backed down to 
Baltimore, reaching Camden Station 
ju9t at nightfall. Meeting with no op- 
position the troops quietly marched to 
Federal Hill in South Baltimore during 
a violent thunder-storm. 

Gen. Butler at once wrote out a 
proclamation to the citizens of Balti- 
more, and had it published in a special 
edition of the next morning's Clipper. 
In it he laid down rules and regulations 
for the military government of the city. 
The seizure here described took place 
on May 13, 1861. (See Butler's Book, 
Boston, 1892, pp. 223-239.) 

These two bloodless military exploits 
greatly incensed the Southern sympa- 
thizers of Baltimore, and Dr. Voick as 
one of of the most ardent among them 
quickly turned the batteries of his 
artistic wit against General Butler and 
at her Northern leaders then promi- 
nently before the public. 

The almost immediate result was a 
series of cartoons which have come to 
some fame as the years have passed. 
In a letter written by Dr. Volck to the 
Library of Congress on January 11, 
1905, he thus refers to them in a man- 
ner which will serve to authoritatively 
establish the date of their production: 



"The Butler series was made early in 
the war at the time of Butler's occupa- 
tion of Baltimore; the plates of this 
were sold some years after the war to 
a Boston firm, and, to my great annoy- 
ance, were, with an altered letterpress, 
published for political purposes, at the 
time of Butler's candidacy for Gover- 
nor of Massachusetts." 

These are the portraits probably 
which were issued in Boston in a pam- 
phlet of which a copy was acquired by 
the Boston Public Library in 1874 soon 
after General Butler had been a candi- 
date for the office mentioned above. 
This publication is thus described in 
their card catalogue: 

Exploits, Ye, of ye distinguished at- 
torney and general Benjamin Franklin 
Butler (Bombastes Furioso Buncombe.) 



A series of burlesque, pen and ink 
sketches. Baltimore 186,2 pp., 6 plates 
8i. 

Their attribution to Dr. Volck is con- 
firmed by an indistinct monogram which 
is found on some of the plates, and 
which is the same as the monogram on 
many of Dr. Volck's other artistic 
works. (See official letter from the 
Librarian, Horace G. Wadlin, August 
17, 1915 ) 

In the Baltimore Sun of March 31, 
1912, three of this series of portraits 
were published with the following titles: 
The Knight of the Rueful Countenance 
(A. Lincoln.) Gen. Butler as Simon 
Tappertit, and Fremont as Sam Tap- 
pertat. These were made from part of 
a set owned by Dr. A. Duval Atkinson, 
918 North Charles street, Baltimore. _ 



Owing to the date of publication the 
following description from a standard 
bibliographical work refers no doubt to 
the original edition issued in Baltimore 
during the war by Dr. Volck himself: 

Ye Exploits of Ye Distinguished At- 
torney and General B. F. B. (Bom- 
bastes Furioso Buncombe.) n. d. Imp. 
8 vo. 2 plates. A series of "Pen and 
Ink Sketches." (See Joseph Sabin, A 
Dictionary of Books relating to Ameri- 
ca, Volume III, New York, 1870, p. 
179.) 

There is also a series of twelve comic 
etchings representing General Butler 
which are evidently the handiwork of 
the same artist, and which were pub- 
lished in a small volume thus described: 
The American Cyclops, the Hero of 
New Orleans, and Spoiller of Silver 
Spoons. Dubbed LL. D. By Pasquino. 
Baltimore: Kelly & Piet, 1868. 12 mo. 
27 pp. illustrated. 

The psendonym of the author of this 
comic poem has been ascertained to 
stand for James Fairfax McLaughlin, anj 
many of the etchings show Dr. Volck's 
well-known monagram, the same as that 
referred to previously. These illustra- 
tions bear the following titles: 

Bombastes at the Mass Military Aca- 
demy, Bombastes preparing for his 
Crusade to New Orleans, occupation of 
[ ye wicked city of Baltimore, Conquest 
of Ye Pump, Battle at Great Bethel, 
Bombastes is ubiquitous, Ye Vow, 
Bombastes burneth ye churches, Bomb- 
astes conqueror of New Orleans, Bomb- 
bastes encountering ye bricklayer, 
Bombastes captures Fort Fisher by 
means of a Patent Volcano, and Home. 
There are copies of this work in the 
Library of Congress and in the Boston 
Public Libary, and they are well worth 
inspection. 

It is very much to be hoped that some 
one competent for such a task will make 
a comprehensive study of Dr. Volck's 
Butler caricatures, as they are prob- 
ably derserving of a place in American 
history during the period of the Civil 
War. 

[TO BE CONTINUED.] 



CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 

A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 

BY 

QEORQE C. KEIDEL, PM. D. 



Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 



IV. DR. ADALBERT J. VOLCK. (Con.) 



Doctor Volck in his trips South, both 
during and after the War, made the ac- 
quaintance of many of the Confederate 
leaders. His picture of StonewallJack- 
son, taken on the field and afterwards 
produced on canvas is the only true por- 
trait of that immortal chieftain. His 
picture of General Lee's study at the 
Washington and Lee University, after 
the War, is another sample of his mar- 
vellous work. (See letter of Major 
Wm. M. Pegram, Aup. 16, 1915.) 

To further illustrate and substantiate 
the truth of these enthusiastic words of 
one of Dr. Volck's warmest friends 
there may be here quoted the complete 
text of the following letters from P.'esi- 
dent and Mrs. Jefferson Davis to their 
artist friend: 

"Montreal, C. E. 
Sept. 5th, 1867. 
Dr. Adalbert Volck. 

My dear sir. 
It gives me great pleasure ti be 
be able to send the accompanying photo- 
graphs, and I hope that they may some- 
times serve to recall us to you pleasant- 
ly. My good little maid Ellen will hand 
them to you, but cannot convey how 
very sincerely I am. Yours, 

' Varina Davis. 

Maggie insists upon being remember- 
ed even in a poscript." 

From the friendly and familiar tone 
of the above letter it is evident that Dr. 
Volck was quite intimate with the Davis 
family. The "Maggie" mentioned was 
the President's daughter, and it ia of 
interest to add that as the original 
letter was cut into narrow strips (now 
mounted on a sheet of notepaper) the 
"good little maid Ellen" probably had 
it concealed on her person when she 
made the trip from Canada to Dixie 
with the photographs. 

Of greater historical interest is the 
following letter from the President of 
the Confederate States of America 
himself: ,.^ 



"Memphis, Tenn. 
iBt May, 1873. 
Prof. A. G. Volk. 

My dear Sir, 
Please accept my thanks for the 
Photograph of your picture of Genl. 
Lee as he appeared in his study at Lex- 
ington, Va. a short time before his de- 
cease. I had not seen Genl. Lee for 
some time before the date of this pic- 
ture and his failing health must have 
materially altered his appearance. 

It is very interesting to see the room 
as it was when the great Soldier oc- 
cupied it, for duties widely differing 
from those the discharge of which had 
made his name illustrious among the 
nations. 

The object to which you propose 
generously to devote your time and 
talents, must be an additional claim to 
the consideration of all who would pre- 
serve the memory of purity, patriotism 
and heroic virtue, as typified by the 
Statue of Stonewall Jackson. 

Wishing you success in this under- 
taking and in all things prosperity and 
happiness. I am truly yours, 

Jeffersin Davis." 

The above letter would seem to 
possess historical value as evidencing 
the high regard in which the President 
of the Confederacy held his chief lieu- 
tenants in the conduct of the desperate 
struggle which was to eventually end in 
defeat. 

The origin of the portrait of Stone- 
wall Jackson so warmly praised by 
Major Pegram above has thus been de- 
scribed by the artist in a letter to a 
personal friend: 



"The drawing from which this hasty 
etching was made is from life. It was 
on one of my blockade running trips not 
long after the second battle of Bull 
Run. I had crossed the Potomac above 
Ball's Bluff and, carrying impartant 
papers, was making my way across the 
country to get to a certain place the 
name of which I have forgotten, but 
where I knew of a person who would 
have me pushed forward. I came quite 
unexpectedly upon a camp and not meet- 
ing any picquets I walked right through 
it. On the other side of the tents and 
shelters I saw some officers talking to- 
gether, amongst them Jackson. As I 
seemed unobserved I pulled out ray 
sketchbook and made what can hardly 
be pronounced a speaking likeness of 
the General. I was almost done with 
it when one of the officers pointed me 
out and Genl. Jackson looked around at 
me with a pleasant smile and turned 
away. I had, however, to show what I 
had done for some officer and also prove 
myself to be a friend. I was sent on 
horseback with a guide. 

A. J. Volck. 

Balto., April 20, '98. 

The etching was made immediately 
after my return home 3 or 4 days after- 
wards, one or two prints taken and for 
some reason now forgotten, probably one 
of my frequent arrests, the plate was 
mislaid. Some 5 or 6 years ago I saw an 
account of this print, said to be the on- 
ly one in existence, described in one of 
the monthly magazines (I think the 
Century.) This caused me to look 
through some old rubbish dating from 
war times and I found the plate, from 
which the prints were taken. I am 
sorry the plate has again disappeared. 
V." (See McHenry Howard, Recollec- 
tions of a Maryland Confederate Soldier 
and Staff Officer under Johnston, Jack- 
son and Lee, Baltimore, 1914, pp. 131- 
132, with the etching.) 

Another note left by the artist in 
manuscript form states that it was de- 
clared by Mrs. Jackson to be the best 
portrait of her husband that had been 
made. 

[TO BH CONTINUED.) 



CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 

A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 

BY 

QEORQE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 



Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 



IV. DR. ADALBERT J. VOLCK. (Con.) 



The most famous of all Dr. Volck's 
artistic works is undoubtedly his series 
of Confederate War Etchings, which 
has become known far and near, and 
which has been republished a number of 
times. As these etchings in truth de- 
serve closer study at our hands let us 
begin by seeing what the artist him- 
self had to say about them more than 
forty years after their conception and 
execution. . 

In a letter written by him to the 
Library of Congress in response to a 
question as to their authorship, he 
makes the following statements: 

"The war etchings, now only existant 
as a fragment, were issued to sub- 
scribers only. It was intended to carry 
on the work while the war lasted, but 
having become a suspected man, and in 
daily fear of arrest, I made the rest of 
the 20 plates, extending to Lee'a sur- 
render and, kept them back for issuance 
after peace should be re-established. 
At the deplorable murder of Lincoln I 
thought it best to go into retirement 
and an officious friend persuaded me to 
let him take the last plates (20) to Eng- 
land and have them printed there. They 
w«re only recovered after some years 
all ruined by verdigris and scratches. 
Feelings and times had changed much 
of my sentiment of the war and I had 
neither heart nor energy to make them 

over again with one exception 

they cannot be called 'caricatures.' I 
feel the greatest regret ever to have 
aimed ridicule at that great and good 
Lincoln -outside of that the pictures 
represent events as truthfully as my 
close connections with the South en- 
abled me to get at them. After long 
days, day by day, of the hardest pro- 
fessional work, from nightfall to far in- 
to the small hours, I worked alone on 
these sketches, drawing, etching and 
1 printing them myself alone. There are 
only 200 copies by ray hand in exist- 
ence. 

Baltc, Jan. 11, 1905. 

A. J. Volck." 



It would appear, therefore, that they 
were made originally for the artist's 
friends and Southern sympathizers, and 
that they were etched and printed by 
the artist himself in Baltimore. This 
first edition is the most beautiful one 
that has been issued, as it was made on 
Japan paper and mounted on card- 
board. The artist himself says that he 
printed 200 sets of these etchings for 
subscribers only, and it would indeed be 
a difficult matter to attempt to trace 
the history of these sets during the last 
half century. 

Suffice it to state here that there is a 
well-preserved copy in the Library of 
the Maryland Historical Society in Bal- 
timore, where it is protected by a 
species of portfolio. The artist had 
originally made thirty plates for this 
edition, but one of them was lost, and 
so only twenty-nine etchings are in- 
cluded in t^e set. With those sent to 
England, "ss stated above, a complete 
set would have to comprise fifty etch- 
ings; but there is no evidence at hand 
to show that such a set is in existence. 
As issued by the artist there is one ad- 
ditional printed page containing a table 
of contents, which reads as follows: 
Index 
to 
Confederate War Etchings. 

1. Worship of the North. 

2. Passage Through Baltimore. 

3. Writing the Emancipation Pro- 
clamation. 

4. Battle in Baltimore, April 19,1861. 

5. Searching for Arms. 

6. Enlistment of Sickles' Brigade, 
N. Y. 

7. Buying a Substitute in the North 
during the War. 

8. Marylander's Crossing the Poto- 
mac to Join the Southern Army. 

9. Election in Baltimore, Novem- 
ber, 1862. 

10. Stone Blockade off Charleston, 
S. C. 

11. Making Clothes for the Boys in 
the Army. 

12. Slaves Concealing their Master 
from a Search Party. 

13. Return of a Raiding Party from 
Pennsylvania. 

I 14. Valiant Men "Dat Fite Mit 
, Siegel." 



15. Tracks of the Armies. 

16. Formation of Guerrilla Bands. 

17. Jamison's Jayhawkers. 

18. Smuggling Medicines Into The 
South. 

19. Offering of Bells to be Cast into 
Cannon. 

20. Albert S. Johnston Crossing the 
Desert to Join the Southern Army. 

21. Gen'l Stuart's Raid to the White 
House. 

22. Gen'l Stuart's Return from 
Pennsylvania. 

23. Butler's Victims of Fort St. 
Philip.- 

24. Prayer in Stonewall Jackson's 
Camp. 

25. Counterfeit Confederate Notes 
Publicly Offered for Sale in the "City 
of Brotherly Love." 

26. Free Negroes in the North. 

27. Free Negroes in Hayti. 

28. Cave Life in Vicksburg During 
the Siege. 

29. Vicksburg Canal. 
Up to this point the history of these 

etchings appears to be perfectly plain; 
but when the bibliographers began to 
take notice of them, and when various 
publishers reissued them great con- 
fusion arose, which it is at present im- 
possible to wholly disentangle. 

The first such notice published seems 
to have been the following, which is 
found in Joseph Sabin, A Dictionary of 
Books relating to America, from its 
discovery to the present time, Volume 
II, New York, 1869, p. 201 : 

"Blada (N), paeudon. Sketches from 
the Civil War in North America, 1861, 
'62, '63. By V. Blada, London. 1863. 4 

A series of forty-five sketches, chief- 
ly of scenes in the Confederate Army, 
really published in Baltimore. Only 
twelve copies were struck off for 
friends, when the plates were destroyed 



for fear of exposing the artist, who is a 
German dentist in Baltimore." 

No copy of this edition has been lo- 
cated, but all of the statements made 
in the above description and note can 
hardly be correct, for they are evident- 
ly in direct variance with the assertions 
of the artist himself as quoted above. 

[TO BE CONTINtlBD.] 



CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 

A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 

BY 

QEORQE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 



Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 



IV. DR. ADALBERT J. VOLCK. (Con.) 



Another widely variant account of 
Dr. Volck's Confederate etchings is 
from the pen of Murat Halstead, and 
reads as follows: 

"Dr. Volck was an agent of the Con- 
federate government and to get his 
sketches he repeatedly ran the block- 
ade. The daring artist rinally was ar- 
rested by the United States govern- 
ment and confined in Fort McHenry. 
The sketches were etched and a few 
copies printed intended for private dis- 
tribution, after which the original cop- 
per plates were shipped to England for 
safety and left with De la Rue & Com- 
pany of London. Owing to neglect, the 
plates were rendered uaelsss by damp- 
ness and verdigris, and never were re 
etched. (See Historic Illustrations of 
the Confederacy, in Cosmopolitan Mag- 
azine, 1890, pp. 496-507.) 

The same writer comments on the 
spirit animating this series of etchings 
as follows: 

"We find these etchings full of the 
sharpest scorn and of rancorous hatred, 
referring to the early rather than the 
later period of the war. There is a 
reason for this that should be well 
understood. The northern and southern 
people.. were taught in the course of 
the grappling in deadly conflict of their 
gigantic armies, to respect each other. 
Before the war they were very ill- 
acquainted, and it was the habit of each 
section to disparage the other... That 
which permits and indeed commands the 
publication of the Confederate etchings, 
which must be regarded as a vivid and 
characteristic contribution to history, 
is the current patent truth that they 
relate to a state of things that has 
passed away. 



" It would be unwise not to be sensible 
that there are sectional matters still 
open for settlement, controversies that 
would be very exciting, even infuria- 
ting yet to come; but of the feeling 
that the works of Dr. Volck represent 
•here is so little left that they may be 
regarded with a compassionate sympa- 
thy and considered purely as history 
and art. The intemperance displayed 
here, the unreflecting remorseless fury 
that is seen, did not endure to Appo- 
mattox. The war was a great teacher. 
It taught the people of the country i 
north and south to respect themselves 
and each other. The old will testify 
that these strange and sinister sketches 
are true to their time; that they are 
faithful as the photography of battle 
fields, of one of the developments of 
warfare; and the young should temper 
their surprise that such things are 
historical, with the sober medi,tations of 
a genial philosophy." 

There may furthermore be cited a 
few of Murat Halstead's descriptions 
of the etchings as appended to the main 
portion of his article: 

Worship of the North. 

This is the most elaborate etching of 
all in the series. It shows the public 
men of the north worshipping, as an 
idol, a negro on the Chicago platform, 
the corner of which ia a carved head of 
Lincoln. 

Passing Through Baltimore. 

Lincoln on his way to the inaugura- 
tion at Washington, fearful of his life, 
appears at the partly open door of a 
freight car to ascertain the cause of a 
horrible noise and finds that it is noth- 
ing worse than a cat on top of a 
hydrant. The car is labelled "Freight- 
bones; capacity, 000." 

Battle in Baltimore, April 19, 1861. 

A spirited street scene in which the 
Baltimoreans are assailing the Sixth 
Massachusetts regiment. 

Making Clothes for the Boys in the 
Army. 

A touching scene in a southern home. 
The aged mother is at the flax wheel, 
spinning the flax into thread; one of 
the daughters is at the loom, weaving 
the thread into cloth; while the other 
daughter is making of the cloth, gar- 
ments for the sons and brothers in the 
army. 



Slaves Cancealing their Master from a 
Search Party. 
The master stands behind the open 
kitchen door, cocked pistol in hand, 
while the slave woman directs the 
armed and mounted party before the 
door down the road. A young negro boy 
sits at the hearth, holding a skillet, and 
endeavoring to reassure a badly fright- 
ened younger brother. 
Return of a Raiding Party from Penn- 
sylvania. 

A very pretty study of animal life. 
The officers, mounted, are directing the 
soldiers, who are driving the herds of 
cattle and swine which they have con- 
fiscated in the rich farming country of 
southern Pennsylvania. The white- 
topped wagons are rolling along filled 
with forage. 

Tracks of the Armies. 

The husband returns to what once 
had been his home, to find the house 
demolished and the dead body of his 
wife among the ruins. The cradle is 
overturned and the child gone. A vul- 
ture sits by the chimney, eager to de- 
scend on the dead. The grief-stricken 
man clasps his hand to his forehead, 
and staggers in amid the desolation. 
The leaf of an open book which lies on 
the floor says, 'By their deeds ye shall 
know them.' 

Jayhawkers. 

A gang of marauders are galloping 
through a hamlet, burning and murder- 
ing as they go. The leader has swung 
over his saddle in front of him a young 
girl whom he is carrying off. A man is 
aiming his gun at two women who are 
fleeing across the field 
Butler's Prisoners in Fort St. Philip. 

A striking scene through the open 
sally port of Fort St. Philip, captured 
by Farragut and Butler in April, 1862. 
Citizens of New Orleans with ball and 
chain fastened to their ankles are at 
work digging and are being guarded by 
colored Union soldiers. In the distance 
General Butler is seen escorting two 
women, supposed Union sympathizers. 
Prayer in Stonewall Jackson's Camp. 

This is one of the most effective 
etchings in the series. A group of 
soldiers led by Stonewall Jackson are 
engaged in prayer. 



V 



Another phrase of Dr. Volck's many- 
sided artistic career was his notable 
connection with amateur theatricals in 
Baltimore shortly after the close of the 
C vil War. 

"In the days of the Old Wednesday 
Club, of whioh he was one of the origi- 
na'ors. he was sui generis, in many 
respects its soul, as he was the only one 
who had the specific talent for design- 
ing and perfecting features of the 
greatest moment to the club and its 
guests on special occasions " 

"Many years ago, at a performance 
at the Academy of Music for some 
charitable cause, he actually outdid 
himself. He portrayed on the stage, 
within a large frame a perfect por- 
traiture of Gerome's Duel after the 
Masquerade, so superb in all its detail, 
the immense audience would not be- 
lieve it was not the real picture, until 
some of the figures walked about. He 
posed on the same occasion a tableau 
called The Amazement of the Artist 
over his Own Work. Two of the 
Society's most beautiful girls, twins, 
posed the one as his model, and the 
other within the frame, he standing off 
with easel and paint brush in hand. 
Again the audience was skep'ical, and 
would not believe the fact until the 
model raised her hpnd, and the picture 
bowed to the audience." 

"Then he had a large number of Bal- 
timore's beauties posing inside frames 
as portraits of themselves, all recog- 
nized by their friends. This brought 
down the house in applause. Who could 
have devised and portrayed such things 
as he? I don't know the man. " (See 
letter of Major Wm. M. Pegram, Aug. 
16, 1915.) 

At one time Dr. Volck opened a studio 
as a portrait painter, and executed in 
oil likenesses of many notable people. 
At a later time he also executed bas- 
relief portraits in silver of Professor 
Basil L. Gildersleeve of the Johns 
Hopkins University, and of Edward V. 
Valentine, the well-known sculptor of 
Richmond, Va. 



On the occasion of Dr. Volck's seven- 
tieth birthday a complimentary banquet 
was given him by the Association of 
Dental Surgeons, of which he was at 
that time the president. The occasion 
was a happy one for tha artist-dentist, 
for around the board were his close 
friends in his profession who rose in 
turn to pay the "Nestor of Dentistry in 
Baltimore" a tribute of respect. 

When the fitting time arrived Dr. C, 
E. Duck.toastmaster.proposed "Health 
and Happiness to Our Guest," to which 
Dr. Volck responded as follows: 

"It was such a surprise to me when I 
was told that I was to be the recipient 
of such an honor as this banquet repre- 
sents that I could not, and cannot now, 
understand by what merit I should be 
entitled to it. I can only see in it the 
efi:ort of that pleasant brotherly tone 
that has prevailed among the members 
of this association since its beginning, 
and of sympathy for a man who has 
borne the burden of professional labor 
for so many years without (may I be 
permitted to say?) ever having dis- 
graced his profession. 

"Men now and then have disturbed 
the peace of the profession by their sel- 
fish ambitions, but I have never seen 
anything of this among us here There 
is not a b'ot or blemish on the brother- 
ly unison of the members of this asso- 
ciation. I have never met them but to 
feel at home among them; never met 
them but mv stock of knowledge. \i as 
increased; never left them without a 
renewed feeling of respect for them, 
without feeling that they respected me. 
From my heart, gentlemen, I thank you 
for this honor." 

The toast, "The Life and Work of 
Dr. Volck," was responded to by Dr. 
Richard Grady, the founder of th i as- 
sociation, who said: On their own 
merits modest men are dumb. We are 
here tonight to show our feeling for the 
Nestor of the dental profession in Bal 
timore. We join in making memorable 
the seventieth anniversary of the birth 
of our president. Dr. Adalbert J. Volck 



Born in a foreign land, the career at 
first planned for him was other than the 
scenes in which it has been cast. Had 
he chosen art for his life work, instead 
of dentistry, there can be little doubt 
that he would have made his mark. 
The branch of art for which he is most 
widely known, perhaps, is his fine work 
in metals. When the work of the day 
is over, when his lost patient is gone, 
then the work of his heart and soul be- 
gins. Midnight usually finds him in his 
laboratory, with the tools of the silver- 
smith in his hands. In his professional 
and private life he is revered by his 
colleagues and loved by his friends." 

"Dr. Volck as a Dentist" was re- 
sponded to by Dr. G. C. Harris, who 
said: "In 1851 Dr. Volck opened an 
office in Baltimore, from which time he 
has enjoyed a rich and distinguished 
practice. Dr. Volck was the first per- 
son to insert a porcelain filling. It has 
always been a happy characteristic of 
Dr. Volck to lend assistance and give 
the benefit of his vast experience to 
brother practitioners. In this way he 
has drawn around him a coterie of warm 
professional friends." 

Then followed "Memories of Dr. 
Volck's Boyhood," written by Rtv. 
Johannes A. Oertel, and read by Dr. C. 
J. Grieves. Dr. Oertel "counts it a 
singular good fortune, after more than 
half a century, to renew a friendship 
calling up so many dearly cherished ties 
of home, of kindred and associations in 
the person of one, honored alike for his 
genius as an artist and his sterling 
qualities as a man." 

"Dr. Volck as a Man, Ever Ready to 
Help the Afflicted and the Poor," writ- 
ten by Gen. James Howard, was read 
by Dr. H. A. Wilson. "Dr. Volck as 
an Artist in Every Sense of the Word," 
written by Thomas Hedian, was read by 
Dr. M. G. Sykes. and a poem, written 
for the occasion by Col. W. M. Pegram 
was read by Dr. W. A. Mills. (Adapted 
from Baltimore Sun, April 15, 1898, p. 

7, col. 1.) 

ITO BH CONTINUED.] 



CATONSVILLE BIOGRAPHIES. 

A SERIES OF PERSONAL SKETCHES 

BY 

QEORQE C. KEIDEL, PH. D. 



Copyright 1915 by George C. Keidel. 



IV. DR. ADALBERT J. VOLCK. (Con.) 



A pleaBing picture of the artist at the 
age of eighty surrounded by the evi- 
dences of his own handiwork was drawn 
a few years ago by a writer in a local 
newspaper, which reads about as fol- 
lows: 

To understand the breadth and ver- 
satility of the master's genius one needs 
to visit him in his home at 1601 Linden 
Avenue, Baltimore, a home which in its 
mingled simplicity and artistic wealth 
recalls the descriptions of the abodes of 
his great predecessors in Nuremberg. 
In the wooden frame of the mirror over 
the drawing-room mantel are inserted 
large medallions of beaten silver illus- 
trative of the song of the Nibelungen. 
Perched upon each end of the mantel 
shelf are two big carved owls, which 
once adorned the mantel of the Old 
Wednesday Club. Scattered about up- 
on the walls everywhere are delightful- 
ly -rharacteristic sketches of members 
of the club, with scenes from the differ- 
ent performances in which they took 
part executed in pen and ink with such 
fineness of touch as to resemble etch- 
ings. Also on the walls are oil paint- 
ings and charcoal drawings, while in a 
cupboard in the dining-room is an ex- 
quisite collection of hand-painted porce- 
lain, the work of the same artistic hand. 
Nearby under a glass case stands a tiny 
carving in ivory which he introduces as 
a monument to a favorite horse "Old 
Jim." The statuette is upon a pedestal 
of ebony adorned with delicately carved 
minute hunting accoutrements of ivory. 
It is upstairs, however, in the big, 
sunny back room he terms his workshop 
that the artist best reveals himself, for 
it is here he follows his favorite pur- 
suit, which, like Tubal-Cain of old, is 
that of a worker in metals. Here he 
does his own casting and smelting by a 
process first discovered in Paris and on- 
ly recently introduced in this country, by 
which the design issues completed from 
the mold without further finishing 
touches. Surrounded by the implementt 
for the work of his heart, the artist 
forgets for the moment his shrinking 
from publicity and shows you all sorts 
of wonderful treasures in beaten silver 
or repouse work, which he tells you 



means "push and repush," scenes from | 
fairyland, folklore, poetry, horses' 
heads, foxes' head, wreathed in tiny 
roses of silver, all of such perfect and 
exquisite design and workmanship as 
causes one to regard the small smelting 
furnace as the veritable lamp of Alad- 
din, which the owner had but to rub for 
the most beautiful treasures to appear. 
One sees also a superb terrapin set in 
silver, of which the ladle has the bowl 
fashioned like an oyster shell, while 
small diamond-backs climb up the 
handle amid masses of seaweed. Other 
characteristic pieces are a hunting dag- 
ger with handle and scabbard of wrought 



But old age with its infirmities was 
then already upon him; the last few 
years of his life were sad ones, he hav- 
ing been afflicted with partial paralysis 
in his legs which made it difficult for 
him to get about among his friends. 
The oldest and most loyal among them 
stood by him, however, and prevented 
him from lapsing into that state in 
which he could only "chew the cud of 
sweet and bitter memories." 

The end came on March 26, 1912,from 
the infirmities of age after he had been 
confined to his bed for some three weeks 
in his home on Linden Avenue. There 
were with him at the time his two sur- 



silver, and a massive tankard and drink- i viving daughters. Miss Fannie B. Volck 



ing-cup of the old German pattern 
adorned with scenes of the chase. 

Very few of these beautiful concep- 
tions unfortunately become known in 
Baltimore, for Dr. Volck shares to a 
degree the common fate of those who 
are not without honor, save in th«ir 
own country. The majority of the 
choicer bits are largely snapped up by 
connoisseurs in Washington, Philadel- 
phia and New York. (Adapted from 
Baltimore American, June 20, 1909, pt. 
2, p. 16, cols. 1-4.) 

The last important piece of silver- 
smithing executed by the artist was a 
memorial shield to Southern women in 
1909. It was dedicated by the vener- 
able craftsman to the women of the 
South "as a continual reminder to those 
of the present generation of the splen- 
did example of self-sacrifice, endurance 
and womanly virtues displayed during 
the war between the states, and which 
still exists as an important factor in 
making the New South greater and more 
prosperous than ever. ' These are his 
own words in explanation of the thought 
that inspired him while at work on this 
beautiful creation of the imagination. 
(See Baltimore American, June 13,1909, 
pt. 2. p. 10, cols. 4-5.) 



and Mrs. F. H. Falkinburg. His only 
surviving son, Howard A. Volck of 
Kansas City, Mo., had paid his old 
father a visit but a few days before. 

The funeral took place from his resi- 
dence on March 29, the services being 
conducted by Rev. Dr. J. S. B. Hodges, 
rector emeritus of Old St. Paul's P. E. 
Church, a personal friendof many years 
standing. The pallbearers were Major 
William M. Pegram, Dr. William A. 
Mills, Dr. M. Gist Sykes, and Messrs. 
Morton Schaffer, Edward Ingle and 
William F. Thommen. Burial of the 
mortal remains was made in Loudon 
Park Cemetery, Baltimore, in a lot 
situated about sixty feet west of the 
Stonewall Jackson monument he had 
helped to erect many years before in 
the old Confederate lot so well known 
to visitors. 

In brief conclusion of this personal 
sketch may we be allowed to quote a 
statement once made to Dr. William A. 
! Mills by Cardinal Gibbons concerning 
Dr. Volck to the effect "that he was 
the most universally learned man he 
ever knew." (See letter dated Aug. 
30,1916.) 



RB?llv"lb 



